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Inveraray Castle is a remarkable and unique piece of architecture incorporating Baroque, Palladian and Gothic

Featuring four imposing French influenced conical spires surmounting the stone castelated towers, this unmistakably Scottish Castle was the first of its size and type to be built (at the time of construction) in an extremely remote part of Scotland.

The complicated story of the design and construction of the castle began in 1720 with a sketch prepared by Sir John Vanbrugh, the architect of Blenheim Palace and Castle Howard, for the 2nd Duke of Argyll.

The garden covers sixteen acres, of which, around two acres are formal lawns and flowerbeds, the remainder being park and woodland.

The climate in Argyll, with its yearly average rainfall of 23cms (90 inches), is ideally suited to Rhododendrons and Azaleas, which flower in the gardens from April until June. Conifers also grow well in the poor acidic soil of a high rainfall area, as can be seen by the fine specimens such as Cedrus Deodars, Sequoiadendron Wellingtonia, Cryptomeria Japonica and Taxus Baccata.